VentureBeat

Updated

Quickoffice, which allows users to read Microsoft Office documents on mobile devices, is getting ready to push for greater market share in North America by expanding its offering into new devices. The company’s latest move is the just-announced purchase of DynoPlex, which makes a Microsoft Office suite for BlackBerries.

It’s hard to imagine anyone doing much serious writing on their mobile devices, but as more and more phones are getting connected to the Internet — and become more and more essential to business — basic document reading and editing tools seem like a smart addition. (In fact, VentureBeat Editor Matt Marshall has scrutinized a fair share of my posts via his smart phone.)

We’ve covered a few companies in this area, like document reader Soonr, which has a partnership with Quickoffice, and Webalo, which helps sales representatives and others navigate spreadsheets. But as with a many mobile applications, there’s a lot of room for growth. Dallas, Texas-based Quickoffice seems to have gotten some traction, already shipping on 60 million smart phones, according to the Dallas Morning News. But that’s mainly on phones using the Symbian operating system; Quickoffice has plans to either launch or substantially expand its presence on the BlackBerry, the iPhone, Google Android and Windows Mobile phones.

With its BlackBerry-based application, Dynoplex should help with these plans. The terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

Update: An earlier version of this story included more details about Dynoplex’s technology from the Morning News, but a Quickoffice representative tells us those details were wrong.